The present invention concerns devices for allowing the user of a wheelchair to carry personal possessions along with him or her while moving in the wheelchair, and more particularly such a device for carrying such articles beneath the chair, so that the user of the wheelchair has hands free for the operations necessary in moving from place to place in the wheelchair.
Many thousands of people in our society engage in varied activities in wheelchairs, for which they are required to carry a number of possessions with them while moving from place to place. Students must carry books and notebooks. Shoppers must carry purses and shopping bags containing articles purchased. There is a need for an apparatus whereby the user of a wheelchair may carry such articles in a manner which leaves the user's hands free for rotating the wheels of the wheelchair, and for the other activities necessary for moving from place to place in the wheelchair. It is generally unsatisfactory to carry such articles in one's lap, since they may easily be dropped.
Since wheelchairs ordinarily do not come equipped with such carrying apparatus, there is also a need for such an apparatus which can be used with wheelchairs of varying sizes. Applicants' device satisfies this need by providing such a carrying device of the form of a platform of cross-linked cloth strips which can be mounted to the underframe of the wheelchair, which attaches to the frame by Velcro fasteners attached to the ends of cloth strips which make up the device, said Velcro fasteners having sufficient positions to accommodate a range of wheelchair frame sizes.
Although a platform located beneath the seat of the wheelchair can be used to carry personal articles, there is also a need for such a device to provide a means for carrying the articles securely when the wheelchair is moving in an upwardly inclined orientation, as when the user is going up a wheelchair ramp, or going up over a curb at the edge of a street, in which case the articles will naturally tend to slide and fall off the rear end of the platform, sometimes without the user of the wheelchair even being aware of the loss. Even when the user is aware that objects have fallen, there is the inconvenience and delay of having to turn around and go back to retrieve them.
Applicants' device deals effectively with this problem by providing at least one cloth strap at the rear of the support platform which is located above but parallel to the support platform, just slightly above the platform, which acts to stop personal objects from sliding off the rear of the platform.